


to build a home and nest you here

by orphan_account



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: BAMF Peggy Carter, Canon Compliant, Cute, F/M, Fluff, Gen, at least pre-endgame canon, parenting antics, peggysous, some good soft dad daniel content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-15
Updated: 2019-09-19
Packaged: 2020-10-19 01:07:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20648705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Peggy Carter had raised Sharon Carter, even if she didn’t know it yet.





	1. how to be a parent

"Rachael's going to be in Liberia for a while," Daniel says around bites of his famous chicken cacciatore. "Helping out refugees in the civil war that's happenin' down there, with this organisation she's just joined."

"Doctors Without Borders," Peggy confirms, digging her fork harder into her dinner. "What about Sharon?"

He seems to approach this carefully, his eyes drifting to the wall behind her, pensive. "She wants to know if Sharon could stay with us for a month or so, until she comes back."

Peggy had kept close tabs on her niece ever since her husband died in a car crash. Rachael began to log in more shifts at the hospital and Sharon had resentfully taken to being alone in a house that she didn't seem to belong in. "What about Sharon?" Peggy had asked her niece then. "She's fine," Rachael had waved a dismissive hand. "She's actually getting used to it."

Peggy had regretted not stepping in then. It wasn't a question of her stepping in, but in her not knowing how to. Peggy Carter could infiltrate the most secure military base on the planet, oversee technical security measures from the remotest of places and take out a man in under twenty seconds armed with nothing but a bobby pin. At sixty seven, she was still active and spry, but still scared she couldn't do the one thing she'd failed to do in all her years of living - be a parent. 

She had two children with Daniel, Michael and Eve. She supposed SHIELD was her third, and favourite. Or so it had seemed to her children, who'd come home from school to Daniel who, over the years, had quit his job with the SSR when Peggy became the director of SHIELD. He liked to say it was because his division had essentially become defunct. Instead, he'd developed a taste for the culinary arts from various cookbooks he lugged to and from the library and noting down recipes that their friend Angie swore went back thirty generations of the Martinelli family.

Peggy couldn't quite land on how to describe her relationship with her children. She knew facts about them, the kind anyone could glean off a resume or a game of twenty questions. What their favourite colour was (Michael, grey. Eva, orange); What kind of grades they were getting in school (Michael, a solid B+ student. Eva, aced all her AP classes). They couldn't say the same about her. They were lucky if they caught a glimpse of Peggy slipping through the front door at the crack of dawn and back, in the wee hours of the night.

Maybe she and Rachael weren't so different after all. 

She did want to apologise to her children for not being there as often as she should have and to Daniel for being more than he should have without a single complaint or a scowl, only she didn't want to apologise for doing her job either.

Yet, on some days it was so very hard. Especially one day, when both kids were away at college, she realised they'd grown up and left her behind. "I should have tried, at the very least," she sobbed into her husband's shoulder on a quiet, lonely night. "Maybe," he spoke softly into her hair. "But you were only doing your job. Saving the world." Sometimes, he would repeat the words she often convinced herself with. That she was more than a mother. She was a friend, the director of SHIELD, an excellent shot, even better a spy and he would smile, "The love of my goddamn life."

She puts her fork down. "What did you say?", she asks, even if she knows the answer. Daniel always did the right thing, without fail. He smiles, "I know you know what I said. Is that okay?" Peggy tries to fight the smile tugging at her lips, but she knows she owes it to herself to try, even after Michael and Eve. "Absolutely. I'll have Eve's room ready for her."


	2. chicken nuggets, monty python and steve the dragon

Sharon is a little wisp of a girl, only a few days past her fourth birthday when she shows up at Peggy and Daniel’s doorstep with her mother and everything she’s ever owned crammed into a large duffel bag.

Rachael makes small talk and shifts awkwardly in the foyer for a few minutes, before she leaves.

Daniel turns to his great-niece and asks smiling, “Do you want something to eat, kid? I make a mean, well, anything you want, really.” Sharon’s brow furrows as she thinks his words over. “I don’t like mean food. I like nice food.” Peggy lets out a little chuckle as Daniel tries to go over his words again. “Oh yeah, what kind of nice food are we talking about?” he amends.

“Chicken nuggets,” Sharon volunteers, “I can make chicken nuggets.”

“Sure you can, kid.” Daniel says, as he leads them into the kitchen. “How about you help me out, then?”

Peggy watches as Daniel teaches Sharon how to season the breadcrumbs. “This isn’t how I make chicken nuggets,” Sharon tells him plainly. “How do you and Mommy make it then?” He asks. Sharon points at the fridge and the fryer. “Ah, but we’re making them from scratch. It’ll taste way better, I promise you.”

“Okay,” sniffs Sharon, dubious. “You’ve got to to put in just an itty bitty bit or else, it starts tasting weird”, he says adding the slightest pinch of black pepper. “Weird, how?” Sharon asks from her perch on the counter.

Peggy remembers how she and Angie had once missed dinner at the Griffith and attempted to cook Angie’s rendition of a family recipe of chicken and rice. They’d both been happy with the amount of pepper until their first taste which Peggy had immediately pronounced as “horrendous”. Angie, to this day, maintains that it was “flavourful.”

Peggy rubs her palm under her chin thoughtfully, “I suppose like an evil demon pepper shadow that likes to crawl up people’s throats.” Daniel glances at her. “Ew.” It was all Sharon had said but she’d said it with the kind of delight that children held for the morbid. Peggy wants to attempt another morbid story for Sharon, but holds back. She’ll save them for later.

They eat chicken nuggets for lunch.

Daniel and Peggy agree to not crowd Sharon on her first day here. Daniel turns on the TV, a re-run of _Monty Python_ running on air. Peggy sits close by, mulling over some paperwork, making notes over a report by SHIELD’s newest recruit Coulson. Daniel and Sharon sit on different couches, occasionally at the antics unfolding on the TV.

Later she finds, that it’s hard to get any work done when Daniel and Sharon are running all over the house, screaming Monty Python quotes at each other.

“One, two, five!” Sharon shouts, brandishing a cardboard toilet roll as she would a sword. “Three, my lady.” Daniel corrects, waving a rolled up newspaper about.

She’s in her study and on the phone with Fury about tightening security in DC with rumours of a HYDRA offshoot cell planning an attack on the Pentagon, when Daniel pokes his head through the crack in door and points his newspaper at her and announces, “I fart in your general direction.”

She covers the phone with one hand. “I really wish you didn’t, darling.”, and resumes her conversation with Fury, who’d heard the whole exchange but wisely chose not to comment on it.

Peggy didn’t quite know what to make of Sharon yet. Sharon had the Carter eyes, sharp and brown though her blond hair was something of an anomaly in the Carter genealogy. Sometimes, she would catch Sharon studying her intently and Sharon would promptly look away, embarrassed. She wanted to know what she was thinking when she looked Peggy. Did she remind her of her mother? They had the same curly brown hair, pale face and brown eyes. And the same disposition of abandoning their children, she thinks bitterly.

Later, when she sees Daniel joke around with Sharon at dinner, she marvels at how they both get on like a house on fire. She’d like that with Sharon, but she’s not Daniel. Peggy always gets the job done but miracles always seem a bit out of reach. “Depends on what your definition of a miracle is,” Daniel tells her as much when she confesses this thought to him, years later. “I see you do miracles everyday.”

Daniel and Peggy are doing the dishes when he asks her if she wants to tuck Sharon into bed. Peggy simply chews her lip and stares intently at the plate she’s drying with a dishcloth. She did tell herself she would try and there hasn’t been a challenge she hasn’t been able to back down from. “Yes, I’d love that,” she pauses and then turns to him and asks, “Should I prepare a bedtime song ? A story, perhaps some light comedy or a dance sequ-”

Daniel laughs and flicks some water at her. “It’s not the vaudeville, you’re just tucking her in.” Peggy chucks her dishcloth at his face and tries not to let her nervousness show. “Right.”

Sharon is already in bed when Peggy knocks on Eve’s door. The nightlight is on and Sharon has Daniel’s old copy of _Treasure Island_ on her lap. She doesn’t quite know or understand all the words on the page she reads but the ones she does, she hangs onto. She traces the black lines of words that smell of adventure and illustrations that shows her wants she wants. She goes still when she notices her great aunt at the doorway. 

“Er, do you want me to tuck you in bed?” Peggy asks carefully, almost afraid of the answer. Sharon is used to tucking herself in bed. Her mommy had told her a long time ago that stories and songs did not make the monsters go away but that closing her eyes as tight as she could did. Yet, she found herself nodding as she made space for her aunt on Eve’s bed. 

Peggy sits gracefully, and Sharon is fascinated.

Uncle Daniel is funny and makes the yummiest food even though he’s terrible with a sword. “Help! Help! I’m being repressed!” He’d shouted, when Sharon had poked him twice in the belly with her cardboard roll. She couldn’t understand why he’d chosen to use a rolled up newspaper instead of the really neat stick he used to walk around everywhere with. 

“Did the bad guys take your leg?” She’d asked him. His face turned serious and maybe even a bit sad, she couldn’t tell. “Yeah,” he said finally. “I’m not getting it back, either.” 

“Does Aunt Peggy fight bad guys?” she asked much later. “Everyday,” he replied. 

To her, Aunt Peggy was something else. Something she couldn’t quite grasp but wanted to. Peggy came straight out of a book filled with adventures she couldn’t have. She fought villains and she looked amazing while she did it. Sharon sometimes felt if she looked away for a second, Peggy might disappear into a mythical land filled with heroes. She _was_ a hero and Sharon wanted to know what it took to be a hero, because then maybe she could try being one too.

”Could you tell me a story?” she asks, closing the book and setting on the nightstand. Peggy starts, surprised. “Sure,” she replies. “What do you want it to be about?”

Sharon slides farther into the covers. “I don’t know,” she answers, turning to face Aunt Peggy. “Maybe one with princesses and dragons. Where the good guys always win.”

Peggy spins her niece a story full of great action and intrigue. Where two kingdoms - one good and one bad - fight in a deadly war for power. Where princesses hid, spied and punched people. The evil kingdom got a hold of a magic device, one that could destroy the good kingdom. The good kingdom were trying to make dragons to stop the evil kingdom but they knew making dragons wouldn’t be the hard part. 

“Dragons are good despite what the books will tell you,” Peggy says. “But if you turn someone into a dragon, they’ll have to be good or there’s no telling what might happen.” Sharon nods, her eyes wide, taking it all in. A mage turned a human he thought was the best of them all into a dragon. His name was Steve.” 

“Steve?” Peggy hesitates, she had hit far too close to home with this story. “Yes, Steve...Cap.”

“Steve Cap,” Sharon repeats, enthusiastically.

Peggy tries to wrap up the story of Steve Cap the dragon as fast as she can but Sharon has so many questions. 

“How strong _is_ Steve Cap the dragon?”

”The kingdom of Nazi sounds terrible. Why doesn’t Steve Cap just blow fire onto the entire kingdom?”

”Does Princess Margaret _like _like Steve Cap?”

Peggy stills at that last one. She smiles, tired and brittle and says truthfully, “Yes, Princess Margaret like liked Steve Cap very much. Now go to bed, it’s already eleven. I’ll tell you more stories about Steve Cap tomorrow, I promise.” Peggy sits there unitl Sharon slowly falls asleep. _Maybe_, Sharon thinks as she drifts off, _the stories don’t make the monsters go away but they help me close my eyes._ When, she’s sure Sharon’s fast asleep, Peggy returns to the room she shares with Daniel.

Daniel shifts to make room for his wife. “You were gone a while,” he murmurs, putting an arm around her. “How’d it go?”

Peggy settles into her husband’s warmth, “I told her a story. About Steve. He was a dragon in this one.” Daniel just squeezes her tighter and says, “He was one though, wasn’t he?” Peggy presses a light kiss to his wrist and sighs, “He was.”


End file.
